Tag Archives: Wetherspoons

My experience of pubs in Gateshead is limited and despite sometimes using Gateshead Metro when I’ve been to the Sage it’s not a town I frequent all that often. Since I last visited though there seems to have been quite a bit of money ploughed into the area with a swanky new Vue cinema and little restaurant quarter.

The metro is integrated in Gateshead Interchange which is also a large bus depot and is used by over 4 million passengers annually making it the busiest transport interchange in Tyne & Wear – oooh!

If you exit the metro (which is underground) via Jackson Street, the closest pub you will come to is the Tilley Stone about 100 yards down Jackson Street and on your left. It’s another Wetherspoons (we have a sweepstake running on which chain or brewery will have the biggest presence on our guide!) and well, what can you say about a Wetherspoons? It’s pub by numbers.

This particular pub is fairly modern and clean, nicely decorated with the standard local pictures and factoids on the walls. There’s a long large bar towards the back on the left, with a seating area immediately as you walk in and more cosy areas off to the right. In front of the bar there’s some higher tables and bar stools in front of the bar for more casual drinkers or people who aren’t ordering food.

Drinks were your standard Wetherspoons offerings. They had a list of special cocktails on the wall however when I asked for a Strawberry Daiquiri the barmaid confessed no one had ever ordered one before and didn’t know how to make one. She did offer to find out however her cocktail making skills didn’t instill much confidence so I just got a glass of Prosecco instead. It was about 8pm on a Saturday night and the whole place felt like it was winding down a bit with little to no atmosphere.

Gateshead is steeped in local history so it’s almost a shame the that closest pub to Gateshead Metro is a Wetherpoons, there is a pub further down on Jackson Street; The Metropole, which has been through a massive refurbishment recently and looks like a much more traditional pub.